I'll Be Right Here
by CodyNaomiSwire
Summary: Cave Johnson's warnings about the gels being poisonous are proving to be true, and now Chell is in the hospital fighting for her life, while Wheatley feels both guilty and helpless about the situation. ChellxHuman!Wheatley or Android!Wheatley, and possible 'Blue Sky' continuity.


Wheatley looked around him, his hands trembling in nervousness. The rows of curtain-surrounded cots were enough to make anyone nervous, especially as he heard the doctors' last-minute questionnaires to their patients going on behind them. Asking them if they were allergic to this and that, if they had any infections, etc. All these people being prepped up for surgery. He certainly felt fear for each and every one of them, but the one he felt for the most…was her.

"You can come in now Mr. Wheatley," the kindly nurse said as she pulled back the curtains hiding the cot where Chell lay, waiting to go to her operation. With a shaky breath, Wheatley walked in and sat down on the chair by Chell's cot. He couldn't help but clasp her hand in his own as he asked, "Hey, how're you feeling luv?"

"I'm alright," Chell said with a smile. Wheatley had no idea how she could be so calm when facing a situation like this. Then again, she had been surprising calm when facing a giant power mad supercomputer…on more than one occasion. He felt a knot twist on the inside of him when he thought back to whom that other power mad AI had been.

He felt the knot grow tighter as he also thought of how, in a way, it was his fault that she was here like this in the first place. A wave of squeamishness hit him as he saw the little glows of the nanobots light up underneath Chell's skin, going about monitoring her vital signs and repairing the smaller bits of the damaged tissue inside. Eventually, he had to turn away slightly, looking at the covers, but not really seeing them.

Although Chell could see clearly that something was really bothering him. Carefully she sat up, and gently laid her other hand on top of his arm, snapping him out of his troubled trance. "Are YOU ok?" she asked.

Wheatley paused for a moment as he looked into her pale face, and the dark marks that were underneath her eyes, reminding him all the more of what was happening to her. "Um…no…" he replied hesitantly. "No, not-not really."

"Then what's wrong?" Chell asked, squeezing his hand a bit tighter.

"It's just, you know, you wouldn't have to go through this if I…" Wheatley swallowed hard. "If I didn't…punch you down that shaft."

"Wheatley," Chell said his name comfortingly. "You didn't know about all that-"

"Yeah, that's just it. I didn't know! I was such a moron!" Wheatley nearly shouted.

"Wheatley, look at me," Chell said firmly but gently. With big, bright, sad blue eyes, Wheatley looked back into her own determined slate-gray ones. "There's no need to relive all that over again. And besides, neither one of us knew that the gels would have these kinds of side effects. We didn't know they even existed until-"

"Until I punched you down there," Wheatley finished the sentence bitterly. "See? It's all come back to that again. If I hadn't trapped you down there, you wouldn't have had to make contact with that bloody stuff in the first place! And now it's…it's…" Wheatley took a deep breath again, trying to steady his cracking voice. "…It's killing you…"

Wheatley shut his eyes tight, trying to stop the tears from flowing. He then felt her hand move from his arm to his cheek. He realized his attempt to withhold his tears had been in vain as he felt her wipe some of them away. With his eyes still closed, he placed is hand over hers, pressing it closer to his cheek, and leaning into her comforting touch.

"It'll be alright," she said. He knew she never spoke any word lightly, and that she never lied.

He opened his eyes, looking back into her determined face, with the same crease between her eyebrows that he remembered seeing whenever she faced another challenging puzzle or life or death situation.

She was going to come through this one too…she HAD to.

Wheatley opened his mouth to say more, but was interrupted as a couple of doctors shuffled in, ready with a clipboard of their last-minute questions and other pieces of equipment Wheatley wasn't sure what they were for. But Wheatley tuned all this out as he continued to hold one of Chell's hands as they began to put the IV into the other. He also concentrated on her calm yet determined face. Even though it had become a bit more pale, it still held the same strength he remembered seeing from the moment he had opened her cryosleep chamber. It was like seeing that all over again, but in reverse as her eyes began to grow heavy with the anesthetics now going into her system.

"Alright then," one of the doctors finally said, giving the cue for the others to help wheel Chell to the operating theater. Before they began wheeling her away, Wheatley brought Chell's hand back up towards his face, tenderly placing his lips on the back of it and murmuring into it, "I'll be right here for you this time luv…I promise."

He felt her squeeze a bit harder in reply. Then, he had to let her go.

The last thing Chell remembered was hearing his words. Unlike the last time, she felt herself slip peacefully into the darkness, with his heartfelt words being a warm embrace that she knew would carry her through this.

...

...

...

...

...

The next thing Chell remembered was waking up in a whiteness. As her blurred vision began to clear, she saw that she had been placed in a recovery room. As she shifted her position slightly, she felt her hand enveloped in something soft and warm, and her leg bump into something on her bed. She looked over and saw Wheatley, sitting by her bedside, with his head on her bed, and holding her hand in the two of his own. He had kept his promise.

She had no idea how long he had been there, but it must have been quite a while. "Poor guy," she thought with a fond smile. "He must have exhausted himself with worry."

She playfully wiggled her fingers underneath his hands, tickling his palms. He blinked his eyes open, and then sat up, quick as lightening, as he saw her awake and smiling back at him.

"Y-you're awake! Great!" he exclaimed, clasping her hand tighter with joy, leaning in closer to her. "Oh God, you don't know how good it was to hear that…that…" The tears started flowing freely again, but for a much different reason than before. "You're going to be ok!"

Chell placed her other hand tiredly, but happily, on top of his own. "We BOTH will be, Wheatley. We both will be…"


End file.
